FOOTBALL SECONDARY SAYS DUFFEY IN WIRE

"Athletics are secondary or should be," said Edward Duffey, editor of "The Dartmouth" and football player, in a telegram to the Boston Evening American last night, explaining the militant stand on football adopted by the delegates to the recent Wesleyan Conference. The text in full follows.

"The college representatives who met at Wesleyan University to discuss intercollegiate athletics felt that athletics occupied a disproportionate place in college life and that they should be returned to their true position. This is particularly true of football.

"Everything collegiate, the delegates felt, should be considered with reference to the purpose of the college, which is primarily intellectual. Athletics are secondary, or should be, and intercollegiate athletics should be considered only as a branch of the athletics in which the whole college indulges.

Members of Team Suffer

"Under the present system all to much emphasis is laid on football by the public and the newspapers, with the result that the undergraduates in many cases neglect their college work, especially for the two or three days before and after the big games.

"Not only are the true interests of the college neglected by the student body, but the members of the team suffer from the nervous strain, with the result that their college work is not done thoroughly and they play their games from a sense of duty rather than for the fun of it.

Season is Too Long

"The college delegates felt that the four-game schedule with teams of their own size and in their own vicinity would do away with much of the difficulty that now exists.

"In the first place, the shortened season would mean that the excitement would mount up over four games instead of eight, and so would be less than it is now by about 40 per cent., especially since the public and the papers would have no national or intersectional championship to be on the lookout for.

"Although it cannot be truthfully said that college football players do not like the game today, it is fairly certain that the fun of the game is decreased by the length of the present season.

Training To Start With College

"The last two games of even an eight-game schedule are not relished at all. A four-game schedule would remedy this, and it would do away, as well, with the necessity or desirability of Spring or early Fall practice.

"The squad could go into training with the opening of the college and be in tiptop shape for an opening game late in October.

"In connection with this also, the professional coach should be eliminated as much as possible. With several exceptions, the goal of a professional coach is nothing other than to produce a "win at any cost team, so that he can be assured of a fat contract the succeeding Fall. The system of having coaches attached to the faculties of the college, and considered as such, is best.

"Second to this is the system, such as Dartmouth has, of having a graduate coach the team more for love of the game and interest in young men than for a number of dollars measured by the number of points the team can score."